Found: Surrealist/existencialist book featuring giant doors/gates that needed certain keys

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Found: Surrealist/existencialist book featuring giant doors/gates that needed certain keys

1Busted_Bayou
jan 10, 4:21 pm

I remember reading an excerpt for a test years ago that featured some of the following elements. I'm not sure that each of them was present:

1.- Giant doors or gates. It gave a curiosity feeling of what they were and what was their purpose.
2.- Keys especific to each door that were like riddles or needed riddles to be found if i remember correctly.
3.- Gatekeepers that seemed to be sage riddlers in service of whoever wanted to go through the doors and gave the feeling of what or who are this guys and why are there here and why do they have this knowledge.
4.- Protagonist that either lost his memories or felt lost or was in kind of a fever dream. It seemed like he was going to understand or learn things of this experience. It felt surrealist and existencialist at the same time. Kinda like fusing Kafka and Camus together. It also gave a feeling of curiosity of the unknown.
5.- I remember some description about geometrical shapes that gave it more of a surreal feeling.
6.- I remember it being either in space, in the void or under a starry night sky in the middle of nowhere. I also remember sand but I'm not sure. I saw there's a book named "Doorways in the sand" and maybe that influenced me, because I haven't been able to check it to see if it's the one I'm looking for.

2dukedom_enough
jan 10, 4:42 pm

Did you look at the reviews under Doorways in the Sand? Some of them talk about plot details.

I read that one, but too long ago to be sure about details.

3jollyavis
jan 10, 6:15 pm

To me it sounds like "Before The Law," which is a short parable in The Trial by Franz Kafka.

4Busted_Bayou
jan 20, 12:25 am

>3 jollyavis: Thank you very much! I think this is it. I had "The Trial" by Kafka as one of my suspects, since I remember it giving me a very Kafka feel. I don't know where I got the keys from though hahaha.